Colors look different when exporting. (I tried EVERYTHING!)

[stevesc23]

So, this is a pretty common issue and I already did a ton of research and tried a lot of solutions, but nothing seems to be working for me. 

I know this issue has to do with the Color Space and I understand everything needs to be set to Rec.709. I checked all of my footage and sequence settings and everything seems to be on the right color space. I also tried setting the Viewer Gamma to "Quick Time" rather than "Broadcast". I read this did the trick for a lot of people, but didn't make a difference to me. 

Does anyone have any idea what else I'm doing wrong and how I can solve this without using a Gamma Correction LUT? (I also tried that and it looks horrible and nothing like what I'm seeing on Premiere)

Here's my Lumetri settings and below you can see how the video looks when I export it. 

[Ishan Y]

Hi there!

Sorry for the issue. Premiere Pro uses the 2.4 Gamma standard, whereas Quicktime Player interprets the exported files as Gamma 1.96. You can switch the preview Gamma in Premiere Pro to 1.96, which should match your Quicktime preview. 

Thanks,

Ishan

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

The standards for Rec.709 display transforms were set way back when flat screens first replaced the other CRT tube screens in the official addendum to the Rec.709 specs, called Bt.1886. This called for a "power law transform" essentially similar to a gamma of 2.4, be applied to the signal data prior to display.

Apple chose to use a display transform similar to gamma 1.96, but only on some Apple devices! The Apple machines that do not have Reference modes.

So thanks to Apple's decision, we have basically two groups of screens:

1. Apple screens on Macs without Reference modes.
2.  All other screens including Macs with Reference modes, broadcast spec systems, most TVs, PCs, and Android devices.

Group 1 above uses a display transform roughly of gamma 1.96, but only in programs that allow ColorSync to 'manage' (or mangle, depending on your point of view) Rec.709 color. Such as QuickTime player, and Chrome and Safari.

VLC and Potplayer normally do not allow ColorSync to touch the image, so they normally give a decently close actual Rec.709 display of the image on machines like yours. 

And VLC and Potplayer normally show you far closer to what all the screen in Group 2 above will see.

So you have two choices here:

1.  Set Premiere's Viewer gamma to 1.96, grade the file to taste, and export. It should look fairly similar in QuickTime player if you are on a Mac without reference modes.
2.  Set Premiere's Viewer gamma to 2.2, grade to taste, and export ... unless you grade in a controlled, darkened room, as pro colorists do, which is the only time gamma 2.4 should be chosen.

And understand if you choose option 1, your exports will look similar (but never, ever, the same!) on other Macs without Reference modes. BUT ... will be too dark and oversaturated on all screens of Group 2 above.

If you choose option 2, then ... your exports will appear light and low in saturation, compared to within Premiere,  when viewed on Group 1 screens. BUT ... your exports will look similar to within Premiere on all screens in Group 2 above.

Pick your poison. There ain't no fix.

And understand ... no one ever under any circumstances, will see exactly what you saw on your screen. That is never ever possible. Colorists don't spend the vast sums on pro Reference monitors and spectros to calibrate them to get you to see what they saw ... as it ain't possible.

They grade under controlled viewing conditions on tightly calibrated and profiled screens, simply so that their exports, on all screens out there, will in relative terms, look like other professionally produced media on each screen. 

And btw ... no one ever grades pro media for broadcast or streaming at gamma 1.96. Period. Nothing you have ever watched was graded to be seen with gamma 1.96. Has that been a notable problem for you?

[stevesc23]

Thank you so much! This explains everything perfectly. I opted to preview the Viewer Gamma and graded on 2.2 and switched back and forth  between that and 1.96 so it looks fairly decent on Quick Time. 

One last question, when uploading to platforms like YouTube, would it display the video like 2.2 or 1.96? (I'm assuming 2.2)

I've only run into this issue when doing a more extensive grading. Some times I edit quick clips for TikTok / Reels without applying any grading of any sort and haven't had that problem when exporting

[R Neil Haugen]

It isn't YouTube that determines, it's the "local system". The OS and/or GPU settings and/or monitor settings.

Which you have never had control of on anybody else's system or device.